U.S. Online Retailer Bows to French Law Protecting Local Bookstores

PARIS—Amazon.com Inc. ended all book discounts in France on Thursday, and began charging a token penny for shipping books, bowing to a new French law aimed at protecting local bookstores from what they had described as "unfair competition" from the U.S. online retailer.

The new law, which went into effect Thursday morning, essentially forbids online booksellers from applying government-regulated discounts to the cover prices...